Day 1

5:30 pm here on the evening of my day one.Made a commitment mostly to my body that I need to quit smoking to improve my health ( respiratory and otherwise) so here goes. Kept myself busy all day but now am home with a small craving but I am happy to be starting the quit again,

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Thanks everyone You guys are great. I am here on the evening of day 2- trudging along. Mostly motivated by the need to be kinder and cleaner with my body in terms of quitting pot, eating healthier etcetera to clear up some old stuff. I hope I can really do this!

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evening of day 4! doing okay. using my body health as motivation- long story there but essentially I need to do a deep long cleanse of my physical body to heal some past hurts and accumulated toxins. Been working with a Chinese medicine man who has told me for many months to quit coffee, eat more veggies and healthier, and less smoking. I resisted all of that but then started to get more health issues so finally just went for it- only 4 days in but I quit coffee and pot for the health of my body and have been eating healthier and am hoping I can finally rid my self of these long accumulated toxins and regain better health, physically and mentally.

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one thing I remember from previous quits leads me to a question for you guys.
How long till the empty space that leaving the pot addiction causes, gets filled up? Pot has filled a lot of my days and time and energy and kept me from that empty bored feeling.
So I know in order to stay off of it, I need to fill that space with something else. I need to find something healthy that inspires and excites and connects me.
What have you guys used to replace pot in your life, to fill the space it leaves? And how long did it take till you found that thing? I have no idea, at this point. I just know at first when I quit there is kind of an excitement of feeling proud and healthier. I am in that now. but eventually it settles and then I get a bored and empty feeling, and that causes relapse for me. What can I do to give me the good things pot gaveme ( excitement, not being bored, feeling connected to spirit) without using the pot? thanks

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What have you guys used to replace pot in your life, to fill the space it leaves? And how long did it take till you found that thing? I have no idea, at this point. I just know at first when I quit there is kind of an excitement of feeling proud and healthier. I am in that now. but eventually it settles and then I get a bored and empty feeling, and that causes relapse for me. What can I do to give me the good things pot gaveme ( excitement, not being bored, feeling connected to spirit) without using the pot? thanks

First of all, at the end of my using, there was no more excitement, or connection I got from it. My life smoking was the most boring thing I could imagine. It was mostly me home alone, watching home shopping network and trying to smoke my brains out.

In my early recovery, I worked hard to find things to fill that hole. Keep in mind these are just temporary substitutes for the real peace and serenity I needed to stay clean over the long haul. Here are some of them: free karate class, reading, volunteering, hiking, NA meetings, running, green smoothies, little kindnesses to myself, cooking, this forum. I tried to take risks and learn new things and grow to replace some of that bored empty feeling.

Over time, I learned that things I thought were fun and rewarding (chasing the high) weren't fun anymore and I had to redefine what gets me off and what is fun, exciting and rewarding in life. That sense of fun, rebelliousness, and spirituality I thought I was getting from getting and staying messed up was just artificial BS anyway.

Congratulations on your clean time. It gets better, I promise you.

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I can only speak from personal experience where I cleaned up last time. I carried a lot of baggage with me and had to begin to lose some of that to get some relief from my own head.

I took up some meditation and that was amazing, the first session, for the first time in my life, my head went quiet and my actual voice (not the committee in my head) said to me ' it's going to be ok' and I felt it, despite being in a lot of pain.

For me there's a big difference between filling the void and filling over old (untreated) wounds with distractions other than drugs. Each persons experience is different, but do be aware of this eg: a sports junkie is still absentee from (the rest of) life.

Though science is taking a long time to catch up with traditional wisdom there is much to be said for a holistic approach to life. Spiritual, physical, emotional, social... and in the rat race we live in, financial is also of importance - to pay the bills, not be an exploitative s***.

I think it was Nietzsche who, while musing on humankind's existential dilemma, said 'the purpose of life is to find a purpose worthy of supporting a life'...

For some this is as simple as raising their children. For others philanthropy, teaching, helping professions, civic duty... or for me currently - writing a book that sorely needs to be written (detoxing soils).

What you have now is a world of opportunity - What you have on weed is a narrowing down, of most everything.

It's hard to see the wood for the trees in early recovery. I go to meetings and hear things I need to hear despite I've heard them before, my memory is selective and my head's default is over-analysis and noise.

The road straight and narrow is actually broad and expansive. It's using that diminishes life, not vice-versa.

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Thanks everyone. you guys are amazing and are my inspiration in this.
evening of Day 5.
I have my second therapy appointment tomorrow so am looking forward to getting help discussing how to STAY off it.

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day 7! And I love my new therapist- she is deep and wise and I feel better from talking to her. I kinda want to say all the things that have changed even in this week for me but I am still cautious- like I just want to keep it quiet and keep it going, so that I can keep it going.

I will say my breathing is improving and that was my #1 motivation so thank goodness for that.

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